Ken Banks

Ken focuses on using mobile technology to foster positive social and environmental change in the developing world, and he has spent the last 15 years working on projects in Africa. Recently, his research resulted in the development of FrontlineSMS, a field communication system designed to empower grassroots nonprofit organizations.

Background

Ken graduated from Sussex University with honours in Social Anthropology with Development Studies. He was awarded a Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship in 2006 and named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow in 2008. Ken’s work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Institute, and he is the current recipient of a grant from the Hewlett Foundation. Further details of Ken's wider work are available on his site, www.kiwanja.net.

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again..."